Speech #980219365

Congressman BILL MCCOLLUM. that would strike all legalization and legalization assistance. This amendment offered by my colleague is uncharacteristically mean spirited and would leave us with a vast underground population. easily exploited. This amendment makes no sense. particularly in a district such as I represent. which has a large population of undocumented workers. The civil health of such districts requires a fair. workable legalization program that offers the future possibility of efficient and targeted enforcement on new flows of undocumented workers. The nonalternative offered in this amendment would leave only two options: First. we could continue with a large underground population outside of our laws. or second. we would be faced with the nightmare possibility of police state sweeps in our communities in order to deport the undocumented workers amongst us. This is clearly intolerable and I know that my district and that of many others in this body would not tolerate such a situation. I would hope that my colleague from Florida would withdraw this amendment.*